Okay, Updates Time
I said it wouldn’t be this long, didn’t I? Argh.
Let’s see. Mike got his hair cut again. Donated it to Locks of Love.
Brendon turned 8, Alex turned 4.
This Saturday I’m taking Kelsey to his first full-blown concert, to see Linkin Park. He’s so excited. I swear we’ve taken him to a concert before, but I think he was a wee lil’ thing and if I can’t remember it, I’m sure he can’t either.
We now have a new daily houseguest. Papaw Jess, my grandfather, who is 85. Mom and Dad brought him back up here from his home in Tennessee after going down to visit and seeing how much he really needed someone to be with him full-time. He’s living with them, and on the way to work they bring him over here to be with us. You want to see someone light up? Just watching his face when he sees the boys stumble sleepily down the hall in the morning, see him sitting in the living room, and squeal and RUN to cover him with hugs is a joy. These are his great-grandchildren. Anyhoo, more on that later.
Mike finally got his promotion that he’s been promised since October of last year.
Today's Gas Prices
Hrmm, can’t think of anything else new at the moment.
Papaw Jess
Want a stark and sudden change to your routine? Add in taking care of your grandfather every day. =)
It’s been such a blessing to have him with us. The boys are loving it, and he seems to really enjoy being around them, even if they’re just snuggled up to him while making him endure the latest episode of Clifford, the Big Red Dog.
Jess was living by himself at his house in Tennessee. His long-time neighbor and good friend was looking after him. Well, the neighbor called Mom and told her it was time for her to visit, the house needed cleaning up and Jess wasn’t doing too good. So Mom and Dad went down there to find the place a real mess, and ‘not doing too good’ was an understatement. His short-term memory is drifting, and he can’t remember simple things like whether he’s eaten today or whether he’s taken a bath. Hence, he wasn’t eating or bathing well. He wasn’t taking care of the household work; like laundry, or picking up, etc. His day mainly went like so:
Jess would wake up, get dressed, and sit on the porch to wait for his neighbor.
The neighbor would drive over, and he and Jess would go to the local Hardee’s for breakfast. Every day, Jess would get one cup of coffee and two sausage and egg biscuits. He’d eat one there at Hardee’s, and bring the other one home.
The neighbor would go home.
Jess would put the second sandwich on the stove to eat for lunch, and go back out onto the porch to sit and stare at his front yard.
And sit. And sit. Until it was time for him to go to bed.
He’d go get undressed, go to bed, and the next day everything would repeat exactly as above.
Thing is, he usually didn’t eat the 2nd sandwich, because he’d simply forget to or think he’d already eaten it. The neighbor would find it sitting on the stove the next morning and toss it in the trash. So the ONLY thing he was eating each day was one nasty, greasy, fast food breakfast sandwich. You can imagine what this did to his system and his body. He’d lost a lot of weight, was very weak and could hardly stand up from a sitting position, and his bowels… well, let’s just say that you’re not very “regular” when that’s all you have to eat.
Put together fast-food-induced bowel problems and barely being able to stand up, much less walk, and you can imagine what his clothes and floor through the house were like. Mom threw out most of is clothes and bought him new ones. She spent a week down there cleaning the carpets and the rest of the house. Dad was having to help Jess get in and out of the bathtub, and after taking a bath he’d be so worn out and tired he couldn’t even get himself dressed.
So, Mom and Dad brought Jess home to live with them. During the day while they’re at work, he stays with me and the boys.
I am confident that with lots of TLC and some decent, healthy food his strength will return (it seems to be working). Thankfully his body has already responded well so far to having regular food again and the bowel problem seems to have abated for now. I am hoping that with normal interaction and brain activity, his memory will perk back up. He’s a living example of “if you don’t use it, you lose it”, and hopefully getting those neurons firing again will stave off any further degeneration. It might not, but we can always hope. Sitting on his front porch gave him no stimulation at all; he lives in a quiet old Tennessee town in an old established neighborhood and no cars or people went by his house.
Well it’s sure different here, and it’s sure a lot for him to adjust to so quickly. Which isn’t good, but there’s no other option other than a nursing home (simple word: no). So far he’s having his good days where he seems to be adjusting fine, and one “bad day” so far where he was really upset for most of the day because he was just feeling down about himself. Talking about how he couldn’t go out and work, how he could barely get around, and how he “couldn’t contribute to the world anymore”. =(
I tried to talk to him about how we loved having him here, and how much fun the boys were having with him, and that seemed to perk him up. Later he was talking with the boys about how maybe they could all go fishing. (He used to LOVE to fish and went anytime he could.)
My worries are that he’s going to get tired of just hanging out with us and be bored out of his skull. He doesn’t hear well at all, you have to really talk LOUD for him to understand you (yes, he has hearing aids). He also doesn’t read very well; he went to school through the 3rd grade and then stopped to work on the farm. So letting him watch television means having it blasting the neighbors out, and he’s not interested in books. I’ve been looking into gadgets that help folks with hearing aids hear the tv clearly, and will probably end up getting one, although everything I’ve found so far each have just as many “fantastic, can’t live without it” reviews as they do “what a piece of junk, don’t buy it” reviews. (Any suggestions are welcome!) I’m planning on taking him out and around town to see the sights once he’s a bit stronger, and we’ll start walking around the block with him too probably next week.
What do you think? I wanna know! Please leave a comment :)
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